This is how much the world craves basketball. Uploaded 6 days ago and already 2 million hits? It continues to be shameful that the NBA - its owners AND its players - can't get their act together and get this over with.

The only pure and decent thing is our appreciation of the sport (unless we're talking about the Lakers, of course). It never stops.

Nike always seems to know how to strike a nerve. I think I even appreciated LeBron for a second. Just a second, though.

Hey dudes, I thought you might like to hear on the topic of the Lakers, Lamar Odom escorted his wife to my hometown Sydney Australia as she promoted a handbag range. Lamar approached the local NBL side (Sydney Kings) asking to play a single game as a 'celebrity appearance'. Needless to say, Odom,, got shut down brutally in favour of the local players.

This is hardly a positive, but I guess you need to make the worst of a bad situation. I for one have put out a craigslist ad trying to find a gf to fill the void of the NBA: http://nbasobrietystrike.blogspot.com/

I was watching a Classic NBA game a couple of weeks ago: 1997 WCF, Houston vs Utah, game 6.

Greg Ostertag: 38 min 14 boards, 6 for 6 16 pts, 3 blks 1 stl, 0 TOs and defends Hakeem Olajuwon so that Dream scores only 16. Watching the game, what struck me was that Dream looked tired and got pushed to bad position when he got the ball. So, arguably the biggest game in Utah history to date, and Ostertag comes up big. If Utah loses that game, the Dream, Glide and Barkley Houston could easily win game 7. The game is known for Stockton being uber-clutch. I think Osterag's not getting the credit he deserves as well.

Like most here, I think of Ostertag as a flop. "If he'd been better, the Jazz would have won a title. BS. Ostertag was the Utah Luc Longley. You need a guy like that to complement your stars and clog the lane. Can we give some love here for Ostertag? The guy is the butt of many jokes, but watch that game sometime. Is it fair to say "if Ostertag had been much better than Luc Longley, Utah would have won a title?"

In 97 and 98 the Bulls had three HoFers in their prime, Utah had two. If Utah didn't make it, management is to blame. Or, more likely, nobody wanted to live in stuffy Morman-land Utah. Can't blame 'em, unless they ski (which most hoopsters don't because of the injury rate.)